Carteaux championed industry

As Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing turns 10, we're looking back at 10 people who made significant contributions to the industry during the past decade.

By Ron Shinn

Even six years after his death, it is still difficult to measure the impact Bill Carteaux had on the plastics industry. As president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS), he was a tireless innovator and the industry’s biggest cheerleader. He traveled the world to champion the plastics industry and establish alliances with other associations.  

Carteaux changed the trajectory of the association. In doing so, he gave the entire industry a higher profile. 

Carteaux came to the association — then known as the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) — in 2005 after a long career in plastics machinery sales and is widely credited with saving NPE 2009, which had the misfortune of occurring during a national financial crisis and swine flu outbreak. Saving NPE likely saved SPI, which depended on NPE for approximately half of its operating revenue. 

An early example of Carteaux’s out-of-the-box thinking came in 2007 when he kicked off the pre-NPE 2009 activities with a reception at the K show in Dusseldorf, Germany. This kick-off event has since become a regular feature on the pre-NPE calendar and has attracted countless international exhibitors for NPE. 

Carteaux worked to bring all sectors of the industry into PLASTICS and pushed the association’s agenda in Congress as well as state legislatures. He worked at a fast pace and was known to ruffle a few feathers along the way, but he was the right leader at a difficult period in the industry.